This invention relates to exercise apparatus and more particularly, to portable exercise apparatus for developing the muscles used in archery.
Archery is a sport which requires strength and good muscle tone for consistent accuracy in propelling an arrow to a desired target. The ideal way to maintain muscle tone for archery is, of course, to regularly practice by shooting at an archery range. However, such regular practice is often impossible due to such things as proximity to an archery range, inclement weather conditions, time requirements, trips, etc.
Until now, an archer who is unable to practice on a regular basis could attempt to maintain muscle strength and tone by performing various exercises such as push ups, chin ups, isometric exercises, etc. Alternatively, the archer could use chest and upper body exercise devices which are not designed to be held and drawn in a manner similar to the holding and drawing of a bow. Accordingly, an archer utilizing such techniques does not attain the benefit of having fully exercised the archery muscles which are required for his chosen sport.
It is possible for an archer to regularly exercise with a bow. This form of exercise requires removing the bow from its place of storage, stringing the bow, repeatedly pulling the bow string, unstringing the bow and returning it to its place of storage. Certainly, such exercise can adequately prepare an archer for the sport; however, it also can prematurely age and lead to early failure of the bow and bow string. Additionally, the use of a bow in the home is awkward and can lead to damage of walls, ceilings, furniture, lamps, etc. To add to these disadvantages, a bow is not readily portable and exercise is limited to the place of storage of the bow for all practical purposes.
Specialized archery exercisers are available. Such exercisers include weights, ropes, stands and pulleys to simulate the holding of a bow and pulling of its bow string. These prior art archery exercisers generally involve raising and lowering the weights to exercise the archery muscles. All these prior art exercisers suffer from disadvantages similar to those noted above with reference to the use of a bow, i.e., they are bulky, unwieldy, heavy, difficult to transport and require dedicated space or considerable time to set up the exerciser before it can be used.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a compact, portable archery exerciser which overcomes the disadvantages of the presently available exercise alternatives when one cannot regularly practice the sport of archery.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a compact, portable exerciser for strengthening all of the muscles which an archer uses in the acts of holding a bow and pulling the bow string from its released position to the archer's full draw length.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a portable, compact archery exerciser which can conveniently be taken to the archer's place of employment, on trips, etc. to enable the archer to regularly exercise the muscles used in archery. Regular exercise strengthens and tones the archery muscles so that the archer is able to draw and then hold the bow more steadily at full draw for longer periods of time. Such steady execution of the archery movements improves aiming, releasing and follow through which are necessary skills in the successful pursuit of archery.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a compact, portable archery exerciser in which the pull force is adjustable to allow the archer to build up the strength of the muscles required for archery to, for example, progress to a more powerful bow.
It is yet an additional object of the present invention to provide a compact, portable archery exerciser which provides a constant pull weight throughout the entire range of draw of the archer.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a portable, compact archery exerciser which will produce a pull weight which increases to a maximum at approximately mid pull and decreases beyond mid pull to simulate pulling the bow string of a variety of bows commonly referred to as compound bows.